Get a Local's View of Cathedral Rock in Arizona

Everyone knows Sedona's most famous rock formation. But only locals know it's best viewed from the inside out.

45

SHARES

Coconino National Forest

HagePhoto

Arizonans would recognize the red-and-orange outcroppings, buttes, and spires of Sedona’s Cathedral Rock anywhere, but only locals know it’s best seen from the inside out. “It’s like walking into a medieval throne room of towering sandstone,” says photographer Matt Hage. A .8-mile-long trail leads from Back O’ Beyond Road to the slickrock, but don’t turn around there: Poke around the folds in the rock to find unofficial routes and climbing approaches along the buttresses. (Look up to see trad climbers.) Hage snapped this photo of his friend clambering along a natural balcony on the main Cathedral massif, next to the 450-foot-tall Mace tower.